


Chaos Will Lead Us

by waltzmatildah



Category: Grey's Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-05
Updated: 2011-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-20 03:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waltzmatildah/pseuds/waltzmatildah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: World War Four</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chaos Will Lead Us

Three days before Amber Karev is meant to be crossing a well worn stage in too high heels and a scratchy black gown, stuttering her way through a valedictorian speech she stole unreservedly from the internet, she shoves a change of clothes and her toothbrush into an old sports bag, clips a lead on Pepper, her only friend left in this world, and packs them both into her mother's old car.

Heads for the freeway and only chooses east at the very last minute. Figures west would taste too much like hope and chance and _maybe_...

Fuck that.

The tank is full and she rolls the windows to all the way down, cranks the radio to a decibel that has Pepper cowering under a jacket on the backseat and sings like no-one is listening.

After all, they're not. Never have been.

She swerves to a stop at a park just outside of Peoria. Let's her dog chase wind-tossed leaves across the rough ground as she lays in the damp grass and sips at a McDonald's coke. Gives half her cheeseburger to Pepper before resolutely pointing the car ever east.

They spend the night curled around each other on the backseat at a truck stop just outside of Indianapolis. She trusts Pepper to raise holy hell if anyone comes near the car and the sleep she succumbs to is deep and dreamless for the first time in years.

She wakes to the sound of her cell phone bursting to life somewhere near her feet. The morning sun is fast turning the car into a sauna and she cracks the door behind her head open before cutting off the call. Her mother no doubt. Signalling the start of World War Three or Four or wherever the tally currently stands at.

Voice-mail confirms her suspicions as the woman rants into the beep.

 _Where the hell have you taken my car?_ Something else follows, gets lost in the background noise. Almost sounds like, _Are you okay?_.

Note the order of priority.

Screw you, too.

She runs her fingers through Pepper's curls and contemplates where to next. Plucks Virginia from her American History text book and tumbles her way through the gap between the front seats.

 

 

*

 

 

The sign ahead reads Mystic Falls. Population: Not very many.

It's a matter of just minutes before she's in the centre of town. Bringing her mother's car to a stop outside a pub proclaiming itself as _Mystic Grill_. Figures she'll stop for a coke (another one) for her and a walk for Pepper before putting the car back into gear and heading for the coast.

Vows to have her toes sinking into the ocean no later than lunch-time the following day.

And it's a solid plan too.

Until it's not.

 

 

*

 

 

If she had to guess, and let's be honest, guess work is really all she's got to go on here, she'd guess it was something to do with the radiator. Or maybe the carburettor.

Or the fan-belt.

Yeah, if she had to guess.

She's almost back to the edge of town before the car shits its pants. Grinds to a halt in the middle of the road and refuses so much as a cough in response to her forceful attempts to get it re-started.

“You'll flood the engine if you keep doing that.”

Her head lifts dramatically and her knees jump, ram themsevles up underneath the steering wheel. Hard.

“Ow.” A reflex.

“Sorry.” The voice again; and why the hell is Pepper jumping excitedly at the rear window instead of alerting her to the presence of the stranger?

She blinks back in response, knows she must look absolutely ridiculous.

“Um, are you okay?” The biggest eyes she thinks she's ever come across crinkle at the corners, a disconcerting mix of laughter and concern.

“Pardon?”

And what? Where the fuck has her ability to enunciate actual sentences gone?

“Are you okay? Your car... I don't think-” He gesticulates wildly. Mimics her borderline abuse of the ignition. “The engine will flood if you keep doing that.”

She slides her fingers down onto her thighs. Looks at them like they're foreign objects for a beat. “Oh...”

“I'm Jeremy by the way... Jeremy Gilbert.” He shoves an enormous hand in her direction as though it were the nineteen eighties or some other era she never met and she's supposed to shake it. She doesn't think she's _ever_ shaken someones hand before.

Glances up again at the shaggy brown hair and cute, pink smile. Figures there could be worse times to start than right now.

“Amber.” Clears her throat as she feels her fist disappear into his. “Amber Karev.”

“Nice to meet you, Amber.” She thinks he might actually mean it.

Pepper yips excitedly in the back. Lurches herself from side to side in a desperate attempt to solicit affection from their new friend.

“Cute dog.”

She thinks he might actually mean that too as a wide, lazy grin spreads across his face. She can feel her own cheeks meld into something of a mirror image.

“Thanks.”

“So, uh, your car. I'm pretty sure it's fried.”

She groans and lets her ponytail collide with the headrest. Closes her eyes for a beat before snapping them back to open. Remembers suddenly that a complete stranger has total access to her right now and for all she knows he's some kind of blood-sucking psychopath come to make her his evening meal.

“I can call my ah... step dad,” he pauses on the word and something inside her shifts, “Alaric, he could come with his truck and we can tow your car back into town.”

She weighs up her options for several counts. Realises she has exactly _one_ and sighs. Morphs the sound into what she hopes is a grateful sounding “yes, please” lest he think her rude and change his mind.

“That would be awesome.”

He grins again. Genuine and rare.

“But promise me one thing first...”

He nods, stands a little straighter in the road, seems to take her more than seriously.

“Promise me you're not like, some evil vampire dude that preys on stupid teenage girls and defenseless animals-” If he chokes on her words then she doesn't notice, “I really want to see the ocean and seriously, it's taken me seventeen years and I'm so freaking close to getting there...”

He laughs then, reaches into the car and punches her lightly on the shoulder.

“Anyone ever tell you, you watch _waaaay_ too much bad television!”


End file.
